Easy dowel joinery for dissimilar parts without buying a jig

[@ronhochhalter3491]

Very thoughtful ingenuity with this project. It's nice to have the premium tools like manufactured doweling jigs. But honestly I don't know that having a doweling jig could have helped with this project, at least not for transferring the drilling points on your project. Unless you mass produce many of the same projects, having a heirloom anodized aluminum Jig is impractical IMO. If you do build a drilling jig that needs to withstand repeated use, I would recommend the same procedure that you have demonstrated. With the addition of stainless steel drilling guides that can be purchased from a place like McMaster. They offer many different sizes and are very affordable. You can press these guide inserts into your jig to strengthen the hole for repeated use, but obviously that is not needed unless you need to use it over and over. Great video, I really enjoyed watching.

[@TheSnekkerShow]

McMaster has some cool stuff. I was actually looking at those drilling guides as an option for the exit port of my adjustable dowel making jig, but I couldn't justify the cost when it only takes a few minutes to drill out another piece of Baltic birch.

[@bobmartin6055]

Very clever!

[@Belg1970]

Is your son a weightlifter, lol. That is one beefy stool. Great explanation, would have loved a couple shots of how you actually held each jig in place.

[@TheSnekkerShow]

I really wish I took more pictures of the process. This started as a quick "I'll do it this morning" project, but then some other stuff came up, including overdue tool maintenance. Two weeks later, the quick job was an heirloom job. The two router templates were each held on with a single quick-grip clamp to prevent shifting. The sandpaper probably would have been adequate, but the clamp made it safer. I just held the drilling guides by hand, since there wasn't any significant lateral force.

[@GM-gc8gg]

Wondering if you could comment on why you use this method rather than using dowel centers to mark and then drill matching parts. My take is that the time spent on making the drilling jigs would only be justified if you are making a large number of parts.

[@TheSnekkerShow]

Good question. I actually had to go digging through a drawer just now to remember what size dowel centers I have - Two each of 1/4" through 1/2". I've used them in the past, but I feel like they give me too much standoff between the two mating pieces of wood, which makes it harder to line up odd shaped pieces without making some kind of a guide to avoid getting false dimples. For the top of this project, I would have needed three per side anyway.

[@GM-gc8gg]

@@TheSnekkerShow The way to mark three holes when you have only two dowel centers is to mark and drill the outside holes first and then insert the dowels to locate the part and mark the center hole with just a single dowel center.

[@TheSnekkerShow]

@@GM-gc8gg I think the best way to do it is whatever the builder is the most comfortable with. I'm certainly not opposed to dowel centers. Sometimes I'll even tap a wire brad into one side, clip the head, and use that to mark the mating piece.

[@GM-gc8gg]

@@TheSnekkerShow Agreed. Please don't look at my comments as criticism. Just looking for a discussion. I enjoy and appreciate pretty much all of your videos, especially the ones on DeWalt planer cutterhead replacement.

[@TheSnekkerShow]

@@GM-gc8gg I'm always up for a little discussion. Everyone I've ever met knows something I don't.

[@woodshopnerdery]

Nice system. I can see why always having a physical index on the template would make accuracy repeatable from piece to piece.